All I ask is, that if you catch sight of me, or observe any sign of my
having passed, you will simply keep quiet about it. And now, once more,
good-bye."

Ten minutes later the head overseer, going his rounds, on looking into
Pedro's cabin, found that individual apparently fast asleep on the
floor, with his back against the wall, and such an utterly fagged,
worn-out look pervading his entire personality that the man was almost
betrayed into a momentary feeling of pity for "the poor boy."

His surprise was therefore proportionally great when, on the following
morning, it became apparent that Pedro had succeeded, in spite of the
dogs, in making good his escape from the estate.

A slave-hunt was at once organised, and about nine o'clock, as George
was hard at work in the fields, he saw the hunters--some half a dozen in
number, mounted, and accompanied each by a bloodhound--pass down the
main road through the estate and out on to the open ground beyond. Here
the party divided, half going in one direction, and half in the other,
to encircle the estate, and endeavour to pick up the trail. They were
absent the whole day, but when they returned at about midnight, the
unfortunate Pedro was with them, handcuffed, and secured by a rope round
his neck to the saddle of one of the horsemen. It afterwards transpired
that he had been perfectly successful, not only in evading the dogs
during his actual escape from the estate, but also in "hiding the scent"
from them; and his capture was due to the unfortunate circumstance of
his having been met by a friend of his master's who, an hour afterwards,
encountered the party in pursuit of him, and so put them upon his track.
Next morning the unhappy wretch was "made an example of," by being
flogged so severely in the presence of all the other slaves belonging to
the plantation that at first it seemed doubtful whether he would ever
recover from the effects of it; and, though he did eventually, it was
nearly three months before he was again fit for work.

This incident of Pedro's escape and its unfortunate failure was
naturally the chief topic of conversation among the slaves for a long
time afterwards, and George heard so much of the many difficulties
attending such attempts, that he often felt upon the very brink of
despair. The obstacles were so great as to be almost insurmountable
when those who made the attempt were strong, healthy, thoroughly inured
to fatigue, and had all their fa